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30 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland AILANTHUS GLANDULOSA, AILANTIIUS TREE Ailanthus glnndulosa, Desfontaines, Mem. Acad. Paris. 1 786(1789), 263, t. 8; Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. \. 490 (1838); Britton and Brown, Illustrated Flora of t/u Nortfwrn United States and Canada, ii. 355, Fig. 2272 (1897). A tree attaining 100 feet in height and 13 feet in girth; branches massive and forming an oval crown, which becomes flattened at the top in old trees. Bark smooth, grey, or dark brown, and marked by longitudinal, narrow, pale-coloured fissures, which are very characteristic. Leaves deciduous, compound, 1-3 feet long, imparipinnate, with 7-9 (sometimes even 20) pairs of leaflets, which are either opposite or nearly so, shining above, pale and glabrous (occasionally slightly pubescent) beneath, and unequally divided by the midrib. Each leaflet is stalked, ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, cordate or truncate at the base, entire in margin, except that near the base there are 1-4 pairs of glandular teeth. Stipules absent. The leaves appear late in spring, and exhale when rubbed a disagreeable odour which renders them distasteful to animals. They fall off late in autumn, absciss layers being formed at the base of the leaflets as well as of the main stalk ; the former usually drop first. Flowers appearing in July and August in large panicles at the summit of the branchlets, either unisexual or hermaphrodite; but as a rule the trees are practically dioecious, and those bearing staminate flowers give off an objectionable odour. Fruit, 1-5 keys, resembling those of the ash, linear or oblong, membranous veined, with a small indentation above the middle on one side, close to where the seed is located; and the wings on both sides of the seed are slightly twisted, so that the fruit in sailing through the air moves like a screw. The keys are bright red or purplish brown in colour, and are very conspicuous amidst the green foliage. Seedling: the cotyledons appear above the soil on a caulicle about an inch long and are foliaceous, coriaceous in texture, oboval, obtuse, shortly stalked, entire in margin, and pinnate in venation. The stem above them is pubescent, and at a short distance (about \ inch) up bears two leaves, which are trifoliolate and long- stalked, the terminal leaflet being lanceolate, acuminate, and entire, the two lateral shorter and toothed. 1 Higher up ordinary pinnate leaves are borne. Plate 15 A shows a seedling raised by Elwes from seed ripened on a tree overhanging Dr. Charles Hooker's garden at Cirencester in 1900 ; 2 sown November 26, germinated under glass in May 1901, and photographed on August 28 of the same year, when it measured about a foot high ; the roots, which were very succulent and brittle, were 13 inches long. The seedlings were planted out in May 1902, and grew very rapidly, attaining 5 feet in height, but did not ripen their wood, which was killed back in some cases nearly to the ground. They are now (January 1905) 4-6 feet high. 1 See Plate 14, fig. B. 2 As 1 know of no other tree in the neighbourhood this case seems to confirm Bunbury's observation that the tree in some cases is capable of self-fertilisation. (H. J. E.) Ailanthus 3 1 IDENTIFICATION In summer the Ailanthus is readily distinguished from all other trees cultivated in England by its large pinnate leaves, which have at the base of the leaflets on each side one or two glandular teeth. The black walnut, butternut, and Cedrela sinensis have somewhat similar foliage; but in these the glandular teeth are wanting. The bark of Ailanthus is quite peculiar, and when once seen cannot be confounded with that of any other tree. In winter Ailanthus is easily recognised by its bark in trees of a certain size; but in all stages of growth it is well marked by the characters of the buds and branchlets. The buds are alternate, uniform in size, small and hemispherical, and show externally 2 or 3 brown tomentose scales. 1 The buds are set obliquely on the twigs just above the leaf-scars. The latter are large, heart-shaped, and slightly concave ; and on their surface may be seen about 7 little elevated cicatrices which correspond to the vascular bundles of the fallen leaves. No true terminal bud is formed; and at the apex of the twig there is an elevated small circular scar, which marks the spot where the tip of the branchlet fell off in summer. The twigs are very coarse, glabrous, or finely pubescent, shining and brown in colour, with a few plainly visible lenticels. The pith is large, buff or yellowish in colour, showing clearly on section the medullary rays. In Cedrela there is a large terminal bud, and the leaf- scar has 5 cicatrices. The chambered pith of Juglans will readily distinguish the black walnut and butternut. VARIETIES Several varieties are mentioned in books; aucubcefolia, pendulifolia, rubra, and flavescens being recognised by Schelle; 2 but it is doubtful if any of these are sufficiently marked to deserve recognition. The Ailanthus flavescens s of gardens was determined by Carriere to be Cedrela sinensis. A form with variegated leaves is mentioned by Koch, 4 but it is exceedingly rare. The Kew Hand-list only admits one variety, pendula, a form somewhat weeping in habit. DISTRIBUTION Ailanthus glandulosa has been only found truly wild on the mountains of the province of Chihli in Northern China; but it is cultivated in most parts of China, and doubtless was once a constituent of the forests of the northern coast provinces, most of which have been destroyed by the Chinese. I never saw it wild in any of the mountain forests of Central or Southern China. When first introduced 1 A plate showing buds will appear in a later part. " Lantholz-ficnenmitig, 279 (1903). 3 See article on the " Ailanto or Tree of Heaven" by Nicholson, in Garden, 1 883, xxiv. 63, with figure of flowers, fruit, and foliage, and many interesting details concerning propagation, etc. 1 Koch, Detidrologit, i. 569 (1869).
32, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland into Europe it was supposed to be the species of Rhus which yields Japanese varnish or lacquer; and even now it is often called in France Vernis du Japan. The tree, however, is unknown wild in Japan, and is seldom or never cultivated there. The Chinese in classical times were well acquainted with Ailanthus, which they called ch'u, a word explained as meaning "useless wood," as it was in ancient times (as well as at present) used only for firewood. 1 Popularly Ailanthus and Cedrela are now called cKun trees, the former being distinguished as the "stinking ch'un," and the latter as the "fragrant ch'un." In China the Ailanthus grows to be a large tree; but the timber is little valued. The root-bark is used, as a strong infusion, in cases of dysentery. 2 In the Pharma ceutical Museum, London, there are several specimens of barks bearing the Chinese name for Ailanthus ; but these are doubtfully referable to that species; and the whole subject of the use of Ailanthus bark for dysentery requires further investigation. 3 In the Kew Museum there are specimens of silkworms (Attaciis Cynthia, Drury), which feed on the leaves of Ailanthus in North China; and there are also samples of the " wild silk " produced, which is made into one kind of pongee. This species of silkworm was introduced into France in 1858; and large numbers of Ailanthus trees were planted with a view to the feeding of the silkworms. The winter of 1879 killed off all the silkworms; and apparently the cultivation of the tree in France for the production of silk is a thing of the past. In the Kew Museum there is a note attached to a specimen of the wood of Ailanthiis glandulosa from Tuscany, which says that the bark yields a resinous juice ; but there is no account of such a resin from Chinese sources ; and exudation from the bark has not been observed in trees growing in England or in France. In India, however, the resin, called muttee-pal, is derived from the bark of Ailanthus malabarica, and is used both as an incense and as a remedy for dysentery. INTRODUCTION Ailanthiis glandulosa was first introduced from China in 1751. In Hortus Collinsonianus? p. 2, a memorandum is copied which was left by Collinson, stating : "A stately tree raised from seed from Nankin in 1751, sent over by Father d'lncarville, my correspondent in China, to whom I sent many seeds in return ; he sent it to me and the Royal Society." Pere d'lncarville 6 was a French Jesuit missionary, who died at Peking in 1757. In Trans. Phil. Soc., 1 757, a paper is printed, which was read on 25th November 1756, being a letter from John Ellis to P. C. Webb ; and it mentions two trees which were growing, one in Webb's 1 In the Shu-Ching, it is said : "In the ninth month they make firewood of the ch'u tree." 2 On the therapeutical value of this drug, see articles by Drs. Dudgeon and Robert, in London Pharmaceutical Journal, ser. iii. iv. 890, and vii. 372. 3 The bark has been found to be an excellent vermifuge in cases of tapeworm. See Iletet, in U.S. Dispens. 15th edition, 1564. 4 Compiled by L. W. Dillwyn, and published at Swansea in 1843. » In Cibot, Mtm. Cone. Chinois, ii. 1777, 583, d'lncarville's " Memoire sur les vcrs a soie sanvage" is published, in which he speaks of the Ailanthus as the frtne puant (stinking ash) of North China. Ailanthus 33 garden at Busbridge, near Godalming, and another in the Chelsea Physic Garden, both raised from the seed sent by Pere d'lncarville. The tree is here first described as Rhus sinense foliis alatis, foliolis oblongis acuminatis ad basin subrotundis et dentatis? TREE OF HEAVEN This name is often given to the tree in England, corresponding to the German Gotterbaum. I t is not the translation of any Chinese name, as has often been erroneously stated. Desfontaines' original description occurred in a rare book which has not been looked up by most writers on the tree. He was well aware that the tree came from China, but in selecting a name for the genus he took it from another species which he found figured in Rumphius' Hortus Amboinensis, v. cap. 57, tab. 132. This species, left undescribed by Desfontaines, is Ailanthus moluccana. Rumphius calls it arbor cceli, the equivalent of the native name in the Amboyna language, Aylanto, which signifies " a tree so tall as to touch the sky." "Tree of Heaven" is accordingly a translation of the name of Rumphius, and is more properly applied to the tall tropical species than to Ailanthus glandulosa, which does not attain any remarkable height. CULTIVATION The Ailanthus is easily propagated from seeds; but as trees bearing male flowers are objectionable on account of their odour, it is preferable to propagate the tree from root-cuttings obtained from female trees. In addition to the disagreeable odour of the male flowers, there may be some foundation for the belief prevalent in the United States that they cause stomachic disturbance and sore throat. The pollen from staminate flowers, doubtless, occasions a kind of hay fever. The tree suckers freely from the root and to a great distance, as far as 100 feet from the parent stem. At Kew these suckers frequently appear between the tiles of the floor of one of the buildings near which an Ailanthus stands. At Oxford 2 a root-sucker sent up a flowering shoot, and, what is more remarkable, produced simple leaves, giving some support to the idea that plants with compound foliage originated from those with simple leaves. The tree has extraordinary vitality. Dr. Masters 2 gives an account of a tree which was cut down, the stump being left in the ground below the surface. Several years elapsed during which nothing was observed, but after about ten years suckers were seen coming up in a gravel path adjacent, and these, being traced, were found to issue from the old stump. Ailanthus reproduces itself freely from stools, and the coppice shoots thus obtained are very vigorous. It was long supposed that Ailanthus would succeed even on the worst soils, but this is an error. It only does well on permeable soils, which are fairly moist, 1 In the herbarium of the British Museum there is a specimen labelled Hort. Busbridge, which is undoubtedly from the original tree. It was cut down in 1856 owing to the great amount of shade it produced near the house ( Card. Chron. 1 857, p. 55). There is another specimen from Kew Gardens, 1779, showing that the tree was cultivated early there. 2 Card. Chron. 1 887, ii. 364. I F
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Page 29 and 30: SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PI.
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136 The Trees of Great Britain and
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2OO The Trees of Great Britain and
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a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
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INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
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13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
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BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
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I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
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KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
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AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
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SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
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ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
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ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
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MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
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TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
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TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
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PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
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•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
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CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
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CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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